Holding My Breath
by Cassieopeia
Summary: Sister story to my one-shot 'Waiting'. Ron reflects on his developing feelings for Hermione. Told from Ron's point of view. Do not need to read 'Waiting' to understand.


Title: Holding My Breath

Author: Cassieopeia

Ship: Ron/Hermione

Rating: T

Word Count: 1361

Summary: Sister story to my one-shot _Waiting_ (but stands alone). Ron reflects on his developing feelings for Hermione. Told from Ron's point of view.

A/N: A little something that's been rolling around my mind ever since _ObsessedRHShipper_ gave me the idea in a review left on my story _Waiting_. It's a sister story to it told from Ron's perspective, but you do not need to read it to understand anything. Although, I'd be thrilled if you would!

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She leans over a piece of parchment, quill poised and scribbling furiously. As she nears the end of each sentence, her elbow knocks into the corner of the Potions book that lay open to her right, but she is far too focused to notice anything other than her essay. Which made watching her much easier.

Under the pretense of studying, he watches her. He notes her every movement. When her eyebrow shifts, he notices. When her finger twitches, he notices. He watches carefully as she purses her lips when her quill pauses, then her eyebrows come down over her eyes when she begins to hastily write again. And when she dips her quill in ink, he sees how her lips part and how her eyebrows relax.

Ron peers over the top of his Transfiguration book, which he hasn't turned one page of since he picked it up, although Hermione is too caught up in her work to notice. Her eyes are passionate as she stares down at her paper and her curly hair falls over her shoulders and onto the table, draping across the top of her essay.

He can see some of the parchment beneath it, spaces of white and bits of her precise cursive between the curls. He wonders what it would be like to run his hands through it. He wonders what her hair would feel like in his hands if her lips were pressed to his. Then the image morphs and his hands are no longer stroking her hair, now running along her skin, going beneath her top, up her skirt, everywhere, groping the swells above her ribs and brushing against the soft flesh between her legs…

His mind reels and he blinks several times, focusing on the fully clothed Hermione that sits in front of him. She pauses, bringing her quill to her mouth and tapping it against her lips pensively. Ron shifts uncomfortably as he focuses his attention on her mouth.

Her tie is looser than it was this morning, the day's wear evident. The top few buttons on her white blouse are open, exposing an expanse of the base of her throat and some of her upper chest. Cleavage is hidden behind the buttons and her skirt is bunched up to her mid thigh from the position she's been sitting in, ankles tucked beneath her. The book he holds drops a bit, and he's sure that if anyone else had been with them, they would have noticed his blatant staring.

As soon as he thinks it, he is suddenly aware of just how alone they are. Harry is in their dorm, everyone's already gone to bed. No one would interrupt them if he were to make a move. It would be so easy to just walk over and kiss her. All he had to do was slip off the couch to where she sat on the floor, put his hands on her face and direct her chin up and press his lips to hers. It was such a simple act that would take no more than ten seconds and would last even less.

But it was so much more complicated than just a kiss. He'd already spent years thinking about it, envisioning a thousand different ways he could kiss her-at the burrow, in the common room, a classroom, by the lake, in his room, on the quidditch pitch-there were a million different locations. He wondered how it would happen. Would he take her by surprise? Warn her? Would he be standing or sitting or lying down? Would it be raining or cold or hot or wet? Would it be inside or out? Would he kiss her softly and slowly and be as gentle as he'd always imagined or would it be hurried and passionate like it was when they argued? There was an infinite amount of possibilities and he knew that the only way to find out was to do it. Wait for the right moment.

It was quiet, they were alone, it was warm and dark in the common room and he knew that this was the perfect circumstance. It was where they'd sealed their friendship-played a hundred games of chess, had a thousand rows, shared a million conversations-after the troll incident left them on shaky ground in uncharted territories. But his feelings had bloomed into something he neither recognized, nor cared to understand. He was afraid to feel this way about the girl he'd never really looked twice at. How was it that her laugh, once a nervous giggle, had turned into something so enticing and contagious? And that her once plain brown eyes and uncontrollable hair had transformed into something so beautiful that left him so breathless?

The voice in his head told him she'd always been that way, he'd just been too thick to notice until it was too late.

Yes, Ron remembered the feeling when he saw her on someone else's arm. The feeling in his stomach as if someone were boiling his insides and the fire that raged when he saw how completely beautiful she was. And the way she looked at Viktor-it sickened him.

He wanted her to look at him that way, like he was the only person in the world, like he was the sun and she was the earth, drawn to him. He wanted to kill Viktor when he saw the smug look he'd shot Ron. He wanted to kill him with his bare hands, let out every insecurity, every ounce of anger and resentment and hit him until he couldn't feel the pain anymore.

He felt like he was always holding his breath around her. Like he wouldn't be able to really breathe until he kissed her. The words stuck in his throat like a breath in his lungs. He was always tempted, always just barely restraining himself from pinning her to the wall and kissing her. He was sure that it would be like a sudden breath of air. He was positive if he kissed her he would no longer feel like he was holding his breath.

Ron slid off the couch, onto his knees, next to Hermione on the floor. Her head was still bent over the parchment and he stared at her.

He liked her. A lot. Possibly loved her. He wasn't entirely sure. He didn't think on it much, terrified of what he might find. No, it was easier to just write it off as attraction and imagine the millions of different ways he would kiss her and how he would touch her.

He sucked in a breath, gathering all his courage. It wouldn't be hard. He would kiss her. And if she didn't like him back, then at least he knew. At least he got to kiss her once, instead of living in agony his entire life, torturing himself wondering whether or not she felt a fraction of what he did for her. He leaned in slightly.

Ron saw the next moves before he made them. He would put his right hand on her cheek until she turned around. He would stare into her eyes and lean in slowly, warning her with his gaze. He would press his lips to hers, kissing her softly, gently. The rest would be up to her reaction. If she jerked away and slapped him and told him that she never wanted to speak to him again, then he wouldn't try to kiss her anymore. If she kissed back then… well, he wasn't entirely sure how far the night would go.

Just as he raised his hand to cup her cheek, she turned, looking him straight in the eye. He blanked, startled by the sudden movement and dropped his hand.

"Something the matter?" she asked, blinking at him. He stared, stumped. Time, Ron thought, had surely stopped. But the clock on the wall ticked on, counting down the seconds as he groped for an excuse. It filled the air, occupying the empty space where his words should have been.

"Er… um… no. Nothing's the matter. I'm alright." She raised a skeptical eyebrow before turning back to her paper. He leaned back against the couch, letting out a sigh, not realizing he had been holding his breath.

It wasn't the moment. Not tonight. But it would be someday. Someday, he would kiss her. Someday, it would be the right moment.

Until then he would be holding his breath.

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A/N: Well, I hope you enjoyed, reviews are lovely, of course. (:

Now, that being said, I would just like to say that I've begun to plot out a new story I've been working on. It will be titled _Together Finally _and will be a series of one shots that show us how our favorite Harry Potter couples got together! (And when I say _our_ I mean _mine_)

So, be sure to look for that in the coming weeks. The first chapter will be up no later than a month from now. It will feature a different couple every chapter and not all will be cannon (Neville and Luna were destined for each other! I'm sure of it!) and I will be taking couple requests. I may use the same character in different pairings over, but that's the fun of fanfiction isn't it? Getting to do what you want?

Anyway, so far I have five one-shots planned and am willing to drag this out as long as possible! I'm not going to reveal which characters I will be portraying (although I'm sure that a few will be obvious *cough* RonandHermione) and so, if you don't like one couple I write about, then you can just monitor the story until a new pairing you do ship comes along! And don't forget to leave me a review with your request!

Please excuse the length of this Author's Note and check my page for further details!

-Cassidy


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